.• In Venice, painting, which in the 14th cen tury had not developed as much as in other Italian cities, was given a living impulse in the 15th century by Gentile da Fabriano, Pisanello and still more by that master Squarcione, who was the founder of the greatest school of Lombardy. As on the head of Brunetto Latini there fell some leaves from the laurels of Dante, thus glory came from Squarcione on the of his adopted son, Andrea Mantegna. The school of Squarcione became widely known. From .Negraponte, an island in the dEgean, from Dalmatia, Parenzo in Istria, from the VenetiansLake, from the capital of the Estensi and from learned Bologna artists flocked to this. school. Above all others, like a giant, rose Mantegna. Mantua was the principal scene of his' fame. He had in his soul and in his art the sentiment of Roman grandeur, ex pressed in its highest form in the (Triumph of Canar,R •now at Hampton Court. The classic Was his master; triumphal arches, ancient ruins formed the scenes in which were dis played Christian ceremonies. The sculpturesque figures. of Mantegna lacked the atmosphere with'which they were surrounded by Giovanni, son of Jacopo Bellini, who with his brother, called. Gentile, headed the Venetian school. Giambellino Gioitanni, or John Bellini, departed but slightly in his early work from Paduan or Mantegnesque forms. But, little by little, all that he touched took the color of gems; his shadows became, transparent; his clouds floated luminously through the air and visible harmony pernieated all his idyllic compositions. The knowledge and science of Mantegna be oame poetry in John Bellini. His sublime Madonnas rose to reign over the earth, with beautiful silver-white drapery about their heads, with opalescent flesh tints, with the sweetest expression, seated on thrones of marble be neath canopies made of golden mosaic. When Antonello da Messina came to Venice with the of the Flemish painters, the van Eycks, •-•-the new oil medium,— Bellini ceased to paint in tempera and became a pioneer in the new method. *He was not an artist, but a veritable school of art° has been said of him. A host of artists around 'John Bellini became intoxi cated with color: Antonello da Messina and Carpaccio, Cima da Conegliano and tioccacciero, Bartolomeo Montagna and Morescalco, Lorenzo Lotto and Giorgione. Antonello da Messina probably went to Ghent and brought to Venice the new oil, or perfected drying medium. Car paccio is a profound, yet amusing teller of stories in color. Cima's landscape and archi tedtural backgrounds are better than his figures. Montagna painted in a low key; his figures are very dignified and his landscape backgrounds are Poetical. Morescalco resembled Montagna. Lotto often imitated Giorgione and Titian and his cotispositioni are at times affected ex aggerated. At the period of the Bellini colors in painting rivaled those of stained glass win dows from Murano, or rich fabrics from the Orient — color fairly sang I Giorgione aced the crown of the Quattrocento art on Venice, but, snatched from life when only 33 years old (he was born in 1477), his task was completed by Titian. Giorgione was like a splendid knight in shimmering armor, conquering the realm of beauty, only to die 4n the very flower of his life. The versatility of this artist's genius was manifested in the realm of color, in the sweet womanhood of the Wirgin) with long oval face and thoughtful eyes veiled in Shadow; in 'Venus> of the ivory skin, who, in draperies of silvery white and red yields to slumber, while the light gleams on her beautiful limbs and thegreen earth smiles beneath a lightly clouded sky. In every picture he shows the same love of nature in her varied moods, a most delicate selection of all the minutiae, the same noble style, the same luxuriant forms a desire for light, air, nudity, beauty. The genius and knowledge of Giorgione resembled those of Titian, although very many modern authorities consider Titian never to have equaled Giorgione in any respect. When doubt exists concerning the attribution of a masterpiece ascribed to either, it is not accorded to Giorgione if it fall slightly below supreme excellence. The two were students together. Titian bathed his canvases in sunlight, made the blood seem to course through the veins of his figures and, with vivid colors, reproduced living flesh tints. The doges, the Emperor Charles V, Philip II,' the Medici, the Gonzago, the Estehsi, the Far nesi and Aretino sat to him for their portraits, in which they are immortalized. Titian's daugh ter, Lavinia, superlatively beautiful, still bears witness to the love and pride of her father. When he died, the voice of joy was silenced, the splendor of the Venetian Republic was dimmed, With this cessation of the festal chorus of the last representative of the art or painting transmitted by Giorgione to Titian, Tintoretto appeared, heavy in coloring and in thought. He seems to have painted at fever heat, and done in a single day, his chef d'ceuvre, the 'Miracle of San Marco,> so strong, full and resolute is his brush. It is as though a flame had darted from the sky and enveloped the earth; the flesh of his figures is golden, the very marble is gold-illumined; under his hand autumnal foliage takes on crimson tints; his colors are of flame and his painting is flam boyant as the setting summer sun.
Italian sculpture and painting advanced along similar lines. In the Quattrocento there were pioneers who rose spontaneously to the summit of the ideal and they attained the highest end nence. Sculpture did not progress, as some have affirmed, outside the sepulchre of classic' antiquity, made up of patched counterfeit copies of the antique. New apostles of art, Tuscan sculptors, traversed Italy and conquered it with their chisels. Now splendid monuments and' equestrian statues were erected on public squares. Now triumphal arches were built and the churches were transformed into temples of beauty. Florence, the new Athens, as with a winnowing-fan swept wealth and civilization toward her sister cities. The trecento had brought forth great periods of learning, of high est mechanical arts, the seven liberal arts, the seven planets, the seven sacraments, etc.; but the Quattrocento bore the palm in industrial, progress. Zampo della Quercia even sculp tared the virtues around the Gaia Fountain at Siena as noble matrons, proud of their moral beauty. Learning left its traces on the Quatro.
cento: but the artists in this or that sky seemed to have lost their memory; they made and unmade freely, weaving on a warp that was no longer classic, consigning to oblivion Marciano Cappella and Pendenzio, Cicero and Boetius, Saint Augustine and Saint Thomas of Aquinas. The representations of Old Testa
ment scenes, after Ghiberti had depicted them on the doors of the Baptistry at Florence and after Jacopo della Anuntia's work in the S. Petronio at Bologna, no longer bore the same relation to the antique. It was found in paint ing,— not so much in sculpture,— that in the desire for monuments much had to be omitted because of unsuitability. This tendency may also be noted in the themes taken from the New Testament, limited to the scenes from the Passion of our Lord. Donatello was the great est among the masters who represented the tragedy •of the God-Man. There never was a more violent outburst of passion in art, never a more forcibly shown distinction between the antique and the modern, and never the antithe sis between classic serenity and Christian agita tion. The concentration of the sculpture of the Quattrocento, shown in some of the most sig nificant scenes in the life of Christ, demon strates that sculpture lent itself to dramatic rather than to historic scenes and preferably to the culmination of the lore which had come down from classical days. Thus in motifs from the lives and legends of the saints, the sculptor synthesized and summed up the chief essentials; he suggested the scope of unex pressed actions, allowing one to guess at their fulfilment and to prefigure the original form, From the beginning, Donatello's chisel affirmed these artistic aims exemplified plastically in 'Saint John the Evangelist' and the 'Moses' of Michelangelo, and created the type of 'Saint John the Baptist,' who fed on honey and locusts. In order to make figures true to life, the Virgin, who previously was represented as a mother playing with her infant son, or as .a good housewife, now becomes more mature; the infant Jesus becomes the little lord of the universe; angels lose their infantile ingenuous ness and become graceful youths. All that with which Quattrocenio had formerly clothed its art, kindly expression, natural vivacity, common simplicity, was now abandoned because the idea of strength, of size in Roman art, of sover eignty, was opposed to the pure, ingenuous rep resentation of sacred forms. The contrast was established also between the pictorial elements that had come into modern painting and sculp ture. But only a genius like Michelangelo could personify the national tendency to place art in unison with the great memorials of an tiquity,. to make it prominent, or to detach it, as in the foundations of the Thermm, the forums and the Roman circuses. • It was natural that on Italian soil there should be a tendency toward a living type, and that art should obey certain laws which during certain periods, progressively advancing; augritenting, increasing in size and continually amplifying its chosen forms. But all through the 15th century sculpture was not permeated with classicism as literature was ; it was ani mated thereby when in accord with its character; it sought the antique by degrees as it tatire'fidna the purest sources and beheld a' vision of:an+ cient civilization that daily became dearer. Its acme of. development was at the dose of the Cinquecento when it acquired the grandeur lof sculptured forms, the complek ingenuity of composition, the restless expression of and began to look at examples of plastic aft that had ripened elsewhere, inspired by another civilization. Before this, however, the sassinrilai tion of the antique was gradual and naturalist& art in the Quattrocento was the highway leading to the invasion of classicism.' Italian sculpture was inspired by the antique so that it possessed artistic- liberty- and a love for the nude. But modern art, ere it modeled the nude and gave free• scope, perfected the head and gave the bust a place of honor. Not alone were. the features represented, not aim& the physiognomical traits,. but the individual character, truth to life. Michelangelo omitted even the physiognomy in .order to represent the thought , The bust was the portrait Of a personality, but it did not fulfill the human de sire to leave a remembrance or to have enduring fame. Monumental art. in the found its loftiest expression 'in the equestrian statues of 'Ferrara, Padua Venice; that made triumphal arches of the gateways of palaces and casdeci; that made' 'holy of mausoleums and -mortuary chaPels; an art that peopled altars with statues. ' Mistress of her tools, Italian sculpture 'of the Quattrocento tau swered to the multifarious needs of 'the people and diffused itself throughout all ' the 'courts; in castles of , France, in guilds, in palace of the sultans and in 'the royal residence of the -king of Hungary. ' At the beginning of. the Quattrocento; Nic-• colo Lamberti di Arezzo rivaled; with his metal mouldings on the door Of the Mandbrli of Santa Maria del Fiore, . the ancient vases of Aretino; Lorenzo applied the laws '45f painting and perspectiVe to the door. of -the Baptistry and transformed low reliefs into pictures full of Meanwhile Lucca della Robbia, who had not the high:imagination 'of Ghiberti nor the 'epic grandeur of Donatellui nevertheless-plated vases of lilies, Mary; the faireit lily of earth; and with this Sweet image 'he brought . joy into Tuscan life during, the Quattrocento. Della Robbia worked 'ix' bronze and marble, but is best known as' the founder of glazed terra cotta madti for, and chiefly found in, Florence. • son; and grandsons continued his work; 'but bifore the close of the 16th century the art' 'was' its complete decay. But .above all Tuscan makers• of this century towers Donatellci, who lated man,'the whole of man into marble, and plaster; whether 'he placed the knight Saint George (pxitrort of the Corporation: of Cuirasses) in a niche of San Michele, or erected rugged and wrathful prophets in.thee cathedral; whether he sculptured. a disiolute: dance of youths -or gave the :(supposed)' buit of Niccola da.Uizanci the charactei 'of 'a trib+c une. For a brief . time classitism• conquered' hits after his second trip ta Rome; but ' lift once more broke in upon the sacred history :of' Padua, in the harrassing drama of the Cruci-• fixion and- in the parchments Of 'San Lorenzo. of, Florence. , Verocchio :(*the true is: the !name' byt which Donatello's follower Andrea di Gone is known. He gave an immortality to Bar tolomineo Colleoni that this great captain's own exploits did not gain for him, even though he was without reproach and threw his gauntlet to the foe under fire and catapult.